Take pictures during the month of the team smiling and having fun and share on social media pages.

Educational Opportunities:

National High Blood Pressure Education Month

Consistently take your patient’s blood pressure.

Many people see their dentist more regularly than a physician and could get an early warning about high blood pressure when getting their teeth cleaned or having other dental treatment done.

Root Canal Awareness Week: 6-12 / Root Canal Appreciation Day: 11

How to prevent needing a root canal, what happens during root canal treatment and why.

Social Media Post Ideas to Improve Engagement:

Batman Day: 1st

Receptionists Day: 9th

National Piercing Day: 16th

Eat More Fruits & Vegetables Day: 24th

World No-Tobacco Day: 31st

Practice Management Tips & Ideas:

Incomplete Treatment Reports – Review reports for any patients with teeth whitening or Ortho treatment planned but not scheduled. Consider a special incentive for them to schedule during the month of May.

Insurance Renewal – Many insurance companies renew their maximum on June 1st. Pull a report of any patients due in hygiene or with incomplete treatment that have benefits remaining and renew in June. Starting now, make Use it or Lose It calls, mail reminders and share on social media.

If you are interested in having me help your office create a custom marketing campaign that includes ideas for special offers, office fun, patient give-aways/drawings, community involvement, cross-marketing with local businesses and hygiene continuing care/incomplete treatment scripting, please contact me today at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com

Are you receiving my free dental marketing and practice management ideas every month to your email? If not, PLEASE take a second and follow today or send me your email address and I will send you an invitation to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea. Feel free to share my blog with your dental friends. ~ Thank you!

February is National Children’s Dental Health Month, what do you have planned to help educate families in your community about the need for better dental health?

Field trips to local schools? School field trips to the office? Participating in the National Give Kids A Smile Day?

If you are interested in having me help your office create a custom “Children’s Dental Health Month” (or different themed) campaign by providing you with ideas for special offers, patient gift giveaways/drawings, community involvement such as school field trips and presentations, cross-marketing with local businesses and hygiene continuing care/incomplete treatment scripting, please contact me today at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com

Be sure to see Pediatric Dental Marketing Ideas for many ideas on how to Consistently Exceed Parent & Patient Expectations and Consistently Be Great! Visit here: Pediatric Dental Marketing Ideas

This article will focus on Give Kids a Smile Day which is held annually on the first Friday in February.

Here are some ideas and tips to help you host a successful Give Kids A Smile day in your office.

The ADA website has an excellent Give Kids A Smile Toolbox http://www.ada.org/1584.aspx It’s loaded with information such as Planning, Promotion, Forms, etc.

I wanted to share some additional ideas with you that have really helped to make this day a huge success and gain great patients long after the day is over.

Employee Participation – While you can’t mandate that your team volunteer to work this event, you can ask them to volunteer to work this very special day that will help many underserved children in the community. If you require your team to be there, you must pay them. GKAS day can be a very busy day for the office, I recommend ordering lunch in so team members can relax during their break.

Services/Procedures – Decide which free services you will be offering to the children on this day.

Advertising/Marketing your Event – Here are just a few ways to do this:

Social Media Pages ~ Make good use of all your social media platforms to share information about GKAS day.

TV News ~ Fax & Email a press release.

Fliers ~ Create fliers for in-office use and to give out to those in your community.

Even if your schedule is filling up, continue to advertise! Think of it as spreading seeds all over the community, getting your name in front of many people. You never know when those seeds will grow!!

Key things to remember/do before, during and after the event:

Show lots of Enthusiasm:

Be enthusiastic about this great event and how wonderful your office is!

Printed Materials:

In addition to the event information/details. Be sure to include: Doctors (office) Name, Address, Phone number, email, social media pages, and website.

Telephones:

Thank them for calling, ask how they heard about the event (TRACK EVERY Callers Referral Source)

So your schedule is full for that day, what do you do when the phone continues to ring with people wanting to schedule an appointment for their child(ren)?

Take down their name, phone number, chief concern, and let them know you will call if there are any changes in the schedule for that day. (Believe or not people sometimes cancel/no-show on this day!)

Just because you may not be able to see them on that day, offer them a different day for a complimentary consultation. Give them hope, give them a chance, they’ve probably been turned away from other offices.

Donations:

See if you can get donations from local businesses for the event.

Be sure to include any business that contributed to the event in your advertising & thank you’s after the event!

Day of Event:

Every child receives a goodie bag that includes an imprinted toothbrush.

Take pictures!!! (The ADA website has a release form)

Enter all charges into the computer and write off as GKAS-Charity (Record total donation dollars – the production)

Sadly, There will be some treatment that you won’t be able to do that day – give them a treatment plan and if they cannot afford treatment in your office you should refer them to a dental school or Medicaid office. Have a list ready for them.

It may be the first visit to the dentist for some kids so they may be scared you really have to work at keeping them comfy & make it fun.

You might be surprised to see how many families end up becoming patients.

After the Event:

Send a thank you to the children after the event.

Send a thank you to any business that contributed to the event.

Submit a press release talking about the success of the event, pictures, and tips for parents to keep their child’s smile healthy.

Make your Give Kids a Smile Day a huge success!

It’s actually a really fun day – exhausting yes, and maybe a little heartbreaking but it feels good to volunteer your time and donate your services to help so many children in the community.

If you have any questions about hosting your Give Kids A Smile Event or would like help planning/advertising (press release & talking points)/marketing this special day, please contact me at bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com

Don’t miss out on any of the ideas that I share each month! Are you receiving my complimentary Practice Management and Marketing Ideas in your inbox each month? If not, please start following us today. If you prefer, send me your email address and I will send you an invitation to follow my blog.

Feel free to tell your dental friends all about us so they can start benefiting from these dental ideas too. If you liked these ideas, please let me know by hitting the “like” button. Thank you!!!

It’s that time of year when many take advantage of the warmer weather to “spring clean” their homes. This is also a great time to spring clean your dental practice.

I encourage you to make a checklist of all the areas in your office that need some spring cleaning. I’ll help you get started by showing you how to take advantage of using your 5 senses while cleaning your office. This is by no means an exhaustive cleaning list but it will you give you ideas of where and what to clean.

Sight, Smell, Sound, Touch, and Taste.

SIGHT

What do your patients and potential patients see?

Areas to “see” include;

Office Exterior

Signage

Windows

Landscape/Weeds

Garbage/Debris

Safety Concerns/Handicap accessibility

Office Interior

Reception Room – Sit in your reception room, what do your patients see, touch, hear, smell and taste? Look high and low. What do you see? Dirty carpeting/flooring? Outdated magazines & decor? Stained or worn chairs? Peeling wallpaper? Cobwebs? Dusty plants/floral arrangements? Light bulbs that are out? Look over at the front desk area, if you see a sliding glass window that is full of signs and papers telling your patients what to do and what not to do…remove them immediately! In fact, remove the glass. It’s very unwelcoming!

Restroom – Most if not all of your patients that visit your restroom WILL determine the quality and safety of your care from that experience. (Isn’t that true of you when you’re at a restaurant or any public restroom? No one wants the gas station bathroom experience…not even when you’re at a gas station.) Your restroom should be clean, nicely decorated and well stocked with quality paper products and soap.

Front Desk Area – Clutter represents indecisions. Make a decision to get rid of the clutter! (That includes any sticky notes attached to computer monitors, coats/sweaters hanging on the backs of chairs and fast-food drink containers sitting out on the counters.) Purchase hot/cold beverage tumblers, preferably with your office logo on them for your team members to use at their workstations – this looks much nicer than your patients seeing soda bottles or coffee shop cups.

Job Responsibilities/Descriptions –Have every team member write down a detailed list of all of their job responsibilities. This is VERY helpful in determining more effective ways of doing things as well as finding out what is NOT being done.

Operatories – Sit in the treatment room chairs. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you taste? What do you smell? How do you feel? Again, your patients don’t measure the quality of care, they measure the quality of their experience. Keep your patients loyal to your practice by making certain they consistently have great experiences.

Closets – Make an inventory checklist. Throw away any expired or outdated products, equipment, manuals, etc. While you’re at it, if there is anything that isn’t be used properly due to lack of education or training, go ahead and schedule time for continuing education/training.

TIP: Make a cleaning schedule – who, what & when will the parking lot, restrooms & reception room be checked. This should be done several times throughout the day. Do not wait for the “cleaning person” to take care of those areas.

SMELL

Get rid of the dreaded dental office smell. There are products out there that will eliminate that smell without aggravating patients with allergies. Bake chocolate chip cookies if necessary.

SOUND

Keep the noise down! Patients want to be put at ease; they don’t want to hear the latest office gossip or a TV that is too loud. Avoid using patients’ full names or complaining about patients when you can be heard from the reception room or treatment chair.

Music – Consider playing music in the reception and treatment rooms. Wireless headphones will allow patients’ to listen to music or the TV while in the chair.

Beverage Station in the reception room. Complimentary coffee, tea, cold bottled water, juice, etc. See this Pinterest board for beverage station design ideas.

Snacks – Offer snacks such as fruit, granola bars, etc. This is especially nice for patients that may have been in for a lengthy appointment and need a little boost in energy.

Allow patients to rinse with mouthwash before and after the appointment.

Offer pre-pasted toothbrushes for patients that didn’t have time to or forgot to brush their teeth before their appointment.

TOUCH

Reception Room – Is it comfortable & welcoming?

Reading Material – Have a variety of magazine and books for patients to read.

Temperature – Keep the temperature in the reception room at a comfortable setting.

Treatment Rooms – Be sure that your patients are comfortable during their visit.

Massage Pads on Chairs

Blankets (If you have a patient that is always cold, pop the blanket in the dryer for them right before appt).

Distractions – (Movies, Music, Digital Aquarium, Etc.)

Give Painless Injections…always.

Put your patients at ease by talking with them before you start looking in their mouth.

Free Stuff – Give away items imprinted with your office name, website and phone number to each patient at their appointment. Such as; toothbrushes, magnets, calendars, pens and lip balm. (If you’re wondering where you can order some quality imprinted items, check out Bizarre Marketing. I share this particular company with you because their customer service is awesome!)

Your goal during your spring cleaning should be to find ways to consistently exceed your patients’ expectations and remove anything that is hindering you from reaching that goal.

Are you receiving my free dental marketing and practice management ideas every month to your email? If not, PLEASE take a second and follow today or send me your email address to bhaydenconsulting@gmail.com and I will send you an invitation to follow. This way, you won’t miss a single idea. Feel free to share my blog with your dental friends.

Marketing to seniors typically isn’t a priority for most dentists. However, since advancing age doesn’t mean seniors cannot keep their teeth for a lifetime, why not take advantage of the opportunity to reach out to this generation? Help them to see they’re not destined to lose their teeth.

A few ways to reach out to Senior Citizens:

Senior Appreciation Day (In-office)

Senior Health & Wellness Expo

Direct Mail Marketing to Senior Living Communities

Website & Social Media Sites

Today, I’m going to focus on ideas for you to use at a community senior health & wellness fair/expo. However, many of the ideas for talking points, presentation and giveaways may be used in the other forms of marketing mentioned above.

Health Fair settings can be challenging for a couple of different reasons.

One, there are a lot of vendors and booths/displays so you’re going to want to make sure that your display table stands out. That it draws the attention of the guests.

Two, most people are there for something free. No problem for you, because they won’t leave your display empty-handed.

Many wonder what they should talk about and what sort of items should they give away?

Keep your table neat but attractive – too much information and “stuff” will be overwhelming in that setting.

Include a Big Call to Action with a deadline: You could hand out a sheet of paper that has a special offer on it: Complimentary Oral Cancer Screening, New Patient Special or Teeth Whitening Offer. On that sheet include some of the other services you offer. Also, include your social media sites and of course all your office contact info.

Make certain that you’ll have the ability to schedule complimentary consultations and New Patient Hygiene visits right there on the spot. (Access to your schedule…at the very least a copy of the schedule for the next 2 weeks.)

Very Important: Your display table must include friendly, smiling, approachable and outgoing team members (also wearing, professional & clean attire).

If you’re not looking to spend a lot of money on bags, please consider using small imprinted plastic bags so no one is fumbling with their gifts.

(If you’re wondering where you can order some of the imprinted items listed above and many others not listed, check out Bizarre Marketing. I share this particular company with you because their customer service is awesome.)

Raffle / Drawing ~

– Electric Toothbrush
– Whitening Pen
– Gift Cards
– Gift Baskets ( Themes: Dental, Gardening, Seasonal items, Spa – don’t hesitate to team up with local businesses for basket items)
– Free Teeth Whitening and or $ off Dental Treatment ( NOTE: they can either check the box for which one or all that they are hoping to win. Use a full sheet of paper with prize options and large space for them to fill out their name, email, address & phone (to be used later to send nice to meet you cards).

Should you decide to use a Prize Wheel instead of Raffle/Drawing be sure to find another way to capture their information so you can follow-up with a “pleasure to meet you” thank you card after the event.

Encourage attendees to “like” your office Facebook page and “follow” your office on Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest. Perhaps you can offer some type of incentive/reward for visiting your social media sites.

Take a few minutes before and after the event to briefly introduce yourself to the other vendors and businesses at the expo. Give them a bag with some of your office freebies. This is a great opportunity to build relationships within your community.

So many ways for you to have a fun and successful senior health and wellness fair. Do you have any other ideas that have worked well for you? Please, share them with me.

If you do not already subscribe to receive our free dental marketing and practice management ideas right to your inbox each month, please do so today. Feel free to tell your dental friends about Hayden Consulting. ~Thank you!